Let’s look into the February 2015 data to see what can be learnt that you too can use on your page to increase organic reach.
Social Performance Measurement For Agencies
Facebook page reach study February 2015: Link posts get biggest organic reach, videos getting more prominent for larger pages
Tina Ahmed posted on 15 March 2015
How do I reach more people on my Facebook page organically? What type of post should I publish? It’s a never-ending conundrum for brands and it comes up even more frequently since the changes in the Facebook algorithm and the rapid decline of the organic Facebook page reach.
At Locowise we are in a perfect position to contribute to this discussion with some practical data and advice. This is because we have access to thousands of Facebook pages and the reach of the content posted on these pages is in the billions every month.
Organic reach is not dead yet, link posts get most reach
Our first conclusion is that the organic reach of Facebook pages is not dead as it’s widely reported. 500 pages that we looked at for this brief study have more than 215 million page likes in total. Combined they have posted 27,000 posts in February and received more than 2 billion in organic reach. The average organic reach percentage is at 7% of the total page likes. For pages under 10,000 likes this number rises to 11%, while for pages between 10,000 and 99,999 likes it is at 6%, and for pages over 100,000 likes it is at 5%. Not too different actually from the report that we published last year.
The top-line numbers for post types are
- Link posts get 18% organic reach of the total page likes
- Videos get 9% organic reach of the total page likes
- Status updates get 9% organic reach of the total page likes
- Photos get 7% organic reach of the total page likes
This data says that you should stop posting photos directly but include stunning imagery in the thumbnail images of your link posts instead. Posting more links has the added benefit of you being able to gain more clicks to your website or blog. This makes it easier for you to track any organic ROI from Facebook too.
It’s also important to note videos that only a few months ago didn’t get much reach, have received an algorithmic bump since Facebook started focusing on video. Creating video content is now worth your consideration. If you already have videos it is worth uploading videos from your YouTube channel directly onto Facebook too.
For smaller pages with less than 10,000 likes, links and photos still rule
- Link posts get 32% organic reach of the total page likes
- Photos get 11% organic reach of the total page likes
- Status updates get 10% organic reach of the total page likes
- Videos get 4% organic reach of the total page likes
Link posts are the best performing post type in this category too. Videos are not so prominent here while photos on average reach 11%
of your audience.
For larger pages between 10,000 and 99,999 likes, link posts are still best but videos are becoming more important
- Link posts get 16% organic reach of the total page likes
- Videos get 11% organic reach of the total page likes
- Status updates get 10% organic reach of the total page likes
- Photos get 5% organic reach of the total page likes
The big difference in reach between link posts and other post types is less dramatic here. In general larger pages get less organic reach than smaller pages, but this impacts link posts more than other post types.
For pages for over 100,000 likes
- Link posts get 15% organic reach of the total page likes
- Videos get 11% organic reach of the total page likes
- Status updates get 7% organic reach of the total page likes
- Photos get 5% organic reach of the total page likes
Pretty much consistent with the pages between 10,000 and 99,999 likes. Status updates do see a bit of a decrease in this category, which leaves video a bit more prominent behind link posts.
5 action points we recommend for you
- Publish link posts if you want to reach more people organically
- Use stunning photos you would have posted directly as custom link thumbnails instead in order to gain more clicks and engagement
- If you run a larger Facebook page start experimenting with videos uploaded directly to Facebook
- Start uploading your YouTube videos directly onto Facebook too
- Remember that just posting a link post or video is not everything – always try to be creative and engaging with any piece of content you post in order to boost your results
If you’d like even more specific recommendations for your own pages, have a look at our free trial. We will analyse the reach numbers from your pages and give you clear a recommendation on what type of post you should use and what day and time of the day you should publish your post to reach the optimal amount of people organically.
